Formby MBE winner who founded Club 25 to help hundreds of young people has died

A special Club 25 presentation was held for Formby man Anant Barodekar after he was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List in 2012

A Formby man who was awarded an MBE for helping hundreds of excluded and disadvantaged young people has died.

Anant Barodekar passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on the evening of Sunday March 20 at Southport Hospital.

Anant was born in Bombay, India in 1937. Born into a wealthy and privileged family, Anant learned from an early age the concepts of charity and altruism.

His father, a successful professional man, was a philanthropist who provided college educations for poor but bright students.

Anant arrived in Liverpool in 1957 to take up an engineering apprenticeship.

In 1962 he married his English wife Veronica (Ronnie) and they went on to have four children.

In 1971 Anant graduated in Mechanical Engineering at Liverpool University. A successful career as an engineer and then an educator followed.

On retiring as a lecturer from Riversdale Marine College in Aigburth, Anant deployed his many interpersonal skills working with excluded and disadvantaged young people.

Teaching children who had been excluded from school as well as disaffected youths, he turned the lives of these young people around by nurturing their talents, mentoring them and building their confidence in community projects.

His work within the community with alienated groups sowed the seed for his work with young people with learning disabilities.

Read More

Extraordinary lives

In 1995, Anant and his wife Ronnie founded Club 25, a social activity group for young people disadvantaged in this way. It started with 12 people and grew to 200 members, with over 100 coming to the popular disco nights at Birkdale Labour Club in Southport.

Both Anant and Ronnie were able to observe first-hand the isolation suffered by this particular group of young people.

They recognised the lack of specialised facilities available to those young people once they had left full time education.

Club 25 still provides a safe haven for socialising, meeting new people, dancing, playing pool and other activities that most young people take for granted.

Club 25 has evolved over the years. On Wednesday, March 23, a party was held for all members to celebrate the club’s 21st anniversary.

It was with great sadness that many attendees learnt of Anant’s demise three days earlier.

In the New Year’s Honours list of 2012, Anant’s achievements were recognised and he was awarded the MBE, his citation being for “Services to Youth”.

He was immensely honoured and proud to receive his award which he felt he shared with his wife.

Anant leaves behind his wife, four children and two grown up grandchildren.

The family have been comforted by the overwhelming amount of kind messages of condolences from friends, family and neighbours.

His kindness and mischievous sense of humour will be greatly missed. His legacy continues in Club 25.